Allan Blaer

Profile

My research interests have been in both theoretical and experimental physics. On the theoretical side, I have worked on phase transitions in low-temperature boson and fermion systems, quantum field theory anomalies, dyons and magnetic monopoles in nonabelian gauge theories, and renormalization theory. In experimental physics, I have been working on a precision measurement of vacuum polarization in muonic atoms as a test of quantum electrodynamics.

Most recently, I have been investigating theoretical models of the first-order and second-order phase transitions in helium-4 and helium-3. By using a Monte Carlo simulation on a three-dimensional spatial lattice, my group has been studying the thermodynamic properties of systems of interacting bosons (helium-4 atoms) and interacting fermions (helium-3 atoms). We have been able to do a complete analysis of the gas, normal liquid, superfluid, and solid phases of the boson system over a wide range of temperatures and densities. The fermion system has proven to be much harder to simulate, and we are presently trying to understand the p-wave pairing of fermions responsible for the superfluidity of helium-3